PRICE - - - TWELVE CENTS.
CHEAP COTTON
BY
BY
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A ae MANUFACTURER. ,
seers Ohms
SECOND EDITION.
S BOSTON: BLISHED. BY A. WILLIAMS & CO.,
Poh ROE EON
BY
BY
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SECOND EDITION.
Pet LABOR:
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CHEAP COTTON.
Amone the possibilities of the future is the recognition of the Southern Confederacy by any one of the chief nations of Europe, the breaking of the blockade, and the consequent necessity for the United States to declare war against such nation, whichever it may be. In such event it is universally admitted that our first need would be to crush rebellion at home by the most positive measures,—the first and most obvious of which would be the immediate emancipation of the slaves, since the chief strength of the rebel force arrayed against us is in their power to collect and support a large army without being obliged to draw upon their laboring force.
However much a sudden and forcible emancipation of the slaves may be deprecated, the people of the North are rapidly realizing the fact, that a forcible emancipation, rendered necessary by foreign intervention, or a more slow but equally certain emancipation from other causes, is the logical and necessary conclusion of the present condition of affairs.
We must maintain the Union and the Constitution, and enforce the laws.
In enforcing the laws by the power of our arms, we shall destroy the power of that class which has heretofore governed and controlled the Slave States, namely, the planters and the business men of the cities. By being beaten they will lose
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their prestige and power of control; there is no middle class between them and the ignorant “poor white trash.” Our only hope for a cordial Union is in this very class of poor white trash, composing the large majority of the Cotton States, whose highest ambition is now and will continue to be, to
“cc ] 2 09? own a nigger ;
until we take away the possibility of their ever doing so, by the utter destruction of slavery. That being done, they may be reached and educated into being our friends and fellow-citizens. Until that is done they must continue to hate us with the hatred of ignorance; and a cordial union, while they control the majority of votes in their respective States, will be impossible.
One reason of the unwillingness to face this necessity of emancipation, which may be thrust upon us whether we desire it or not, is the idea that cotton is, firstly, an article of prime necessity; secondly, that it can only be raised in suffi- _ cient quantity by the compulsory labor of the colored race. We will admit that cotton is the best niaterial for clothing the larger portion of the human family,—intended by Al- mighty God for that purpose,—but let us hesitate long before we believe that such an article is dependent for its culture upon human slavery. To admit that, would be virtually to admit the most infamous doctrine of the slave propagandist, that God has ordained perpetual slavery.
The object of the present pamphlet is to prove, that labor upon cotton culture may be performed by whites with perfect ease and safety; that it will yield a larger return to the small cultivator than almost any other agricultural product of this country; and that free labor upon cotton is an absolute neces- sity, to enable this country to maintain its hold upon the cotton markets of Europe.
It is said that the slaves, after emancipation, will not work; that the spontancous product of the soil will support
life and that the negro is naturally indolent.* The decrease in the export of sugar from the island of Jamaica is cited in proof of the allegation. Let those who believe this state- ment to be conclusive, examine a little, and they will find, 1st, that the decrease began and rapidly continued for thirty years before the emancipation of the slaves. 2d, That with the decrease of export, the import of food has de- creased, although the population has increased. 8d, That the aggregate value of the exports of all the British West Indies is now nearly as great as it was in the palmiest days of slavery. 4th, That the cultivation and preparation of sugar requires a very large capital, expensive machinery, and, under the slave system, the most arduous and exhaustive labor, continued day and night during the grinding season,—so hard and ex-
* Cost of labor upon cultivation of sugar, from Sewall’s ‘‘ Ordeal of Free Labor in the British West Indies.”
Cuba, Slave, 3 cents per pound. Jamaica, xe 437-100 “ se Jamaica, Free, 2 se ss Trinidad, s 172-100 “ 2 Barbadoes, fe 140-100 “ S
+The island of Jamaica is constantly cited in illustration of the injury done by emancipation, and to prove a falling off in the export of sugar is considered conclusive evidence of the injury. The following paragraph from Sewall’s Ordeal will show the force of the argument.
“This magnificent country, wanting nothing but capital and labor for its com- plete restoration to a prosperity far greater than it ever yet attained, is now sparsely settled by small negro cultivators, who have been able to purchase their plots of land at £2 to £3 an acre. With a month’s work on their own land they can earn as much as a year’s labor on a sugar estate will yield them. They are superior, pecuniarily speaking, to servitude, and by a law of nature that cannot be gainsaid, they prefer independence to labor for hire. Why should they be blamed 2”
Tt appears to be generally forgotten that there were other British West Indies and Colonies than Jamaica, and that more than one half the emancipated slaves
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haustive that it is admitted it could not be continued in Cuba without a constant fresh supply of slave labor from Africa.
Is it to be wondered at, that after freedom has been attained, a product requiring such labor should partially cease to be cultivated ?
On the other hand, cotton is of easy culture; the whole machinery required for a large plantation, besides the ordinary agricultural implements, being a cotton gin costing about $250, and a press costing about the same. In the picking season, a few extra hands, women or children, are required during the ordinary working hours.
In the present argument, we may admit that we must have cotton, and that the emancipated slave will be idle and utterly worthless ;—we may leave out of sight the fact that even in our southern climate, labor or starvation would be his only choice, and that labor upon the cotton field would be the easiest and most profitable in which he could engage ;—let him starve and exterminate himself if he will, and so remove the negro question,—still we must raise cotton; who will cultivate it ?*
were upon them. Let us try these other possessions by the test of sugar exports :— AVERAGE ANNUAL EXPORT OF SUGAR.
1826 @ 1829, slave. 1856 @ 1860, free. British Guiana, 98,000,000 Ibs. 100,600,000 Ibs. Trininad, 37,000,000 “ 62,000,000 “ Barbadoes, 32,800,000 “ 78,000,000 “ Antigua, 19,500,000 « 24,400,000 “ 187,300,000 “ 265,000,000 “ : Annual imports, same colonies, $8,840,000 $14,600,000
Balance of export and import trade in favor of freedom, at least $15,000,000 annually.
* A friend, who has kindly corrected the proofs, protests against this sammary process of disposing of the negro question, and desires the fact to be pointed out,
Ne that in Boston and New York the proportion of colored paupers and ae i " r w
to the colored population is only about one half that of the whites; th el
y
In an analysis of the census of 1850, made by De Bow, the total foree engaged upon the cotton plantations was estimated at 900,000, of whom 100,000 were free whites, and 800,000 slaves. This estimate is about the same as that made in 1852, under the direction of the United States governmient, whereby the slave force engaged upon cotton was estimated at 787,500, (whites not enumerated); the remainder of the slaves in the cotton States being house servants, mechanics, or employed upon the rice, tobacco, and sugar plantations.*
This foree produced in 1851 a crop of 2,355,000 bales of cotton,—a fair crop is now 4,000,000 bales; but the produc- tion of this increased quantity does not suppose a correspond- ing increase in the number of laborers, it being well known that very great improvements in the system of cultivation have been introduced since 1851, and many thousand tons of guano are now used where none was then used.
claims, that it is proved they are more industrious and thrifty than the whites. Let those who assert that negroes will not work except upon compulsion, ex- amine this statement for themselves.
*¥From The Cotton Crop ef 1852. Report of Israel D. Andrews. Senate Doe. 112.
Crop 3,150,000 bales. ‘ 787,500 hands employed. 6,300,000 acres cultivated. 39,200,000 acres adapted to cultivation. 4,900,000 hands required.
In the above estimate of the number of hands employed in the cultivation of cotton, it will be noticed that nearly two-thirds of the slave population within the Cotton zone are excluded. Some are engaged in the cultivation of sugar cane, Tice, tobacco, and other products; others procure lumber, superintend mills, or are employed on steamboats; some are mechanics, some domestic servants, and with them must be included those of advanced age or infirm, and the women and children, Many of these doubtless contribute to the cotton crop; but more labor is abstracted from cotton in various ways than is given by them to it. It should be stated, that, in portions of some of the states, upwards of fifteen per cent. of the agricultural labor in cultivating cotton is performed by white citizens, who cultivate their small crops themselves.
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A glance at the statistics will make this manifest. (The crops are made up to September 1 of each year.)
TOTAL COTTON CROPS.
1850 2,096,706 1856 3,527,845 1851 2,355,257 1857 2,939,519 1852 3,015,029 1858 3,113,962 1853 3,262,882 1859 3,851,481 1854 2,930,027 1860 4,675,770 1855 2,847,339 1861 3,750,000 est’.
The crop of 1861 was very much reduced by a severe drought. The planting was for 5,000,000 bales.
SLAVE POPULATION IN THE COTTON STATES,
1850. 1860. South Carolina, - - 384,984 402,541 Georgia, - - - 381,682 462,230 Florida, =e ve . 39,810 61,753 Alabama, -— - . 342,844 435,132 Mississippi, - - - 309,878 436,696 Louisiana, - - - 244,809 332,520 _ Texas, 2) 58,161 180,388 Arkansas, - - . 47,100 111,104
1,809,268 2,422,364 Per cent.'increase, 33.8.5.
FREE POPULATION IN THE SAME. 1850. 1860. 2,944,026 3,824,367 Per cent. increase, 295%.
TOTAL SLAVE POPULATION IN BALANCE OF SLAVE STATES. 1850. 1860. 1,395,309 1,530,437 Per cent. increase, 935.
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An analysis of this same census of 1850 exhibits the fact, that in the slave states, where it is frequently asserted that white men cannot labor upon the fields, (in these states whose mean annual temperature is that of Portugal, the south of Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Australia,) there were 800,000 free whites over fifteen years of age employed exclusively in agriculture, and over 1,000,000 exclusively in out-door labor.*
In Georgia, 93,161 Louisiana, 25,351 Alabama, 74,971 Tennessee, 132,639 Mississippi, 55,851 Florida, 8,070 Texas, 47,700 Arkansas, 34,032
South Carolina, 44,603.
* Small drains and larger ditches occur at almost every step. All these flow into a canal, some fifteen feet wide, which runs between the plantation and the uncleared forest, and carries off the water to a bayou still more remote. There are twenty miles of deep ditching upon the plantation, exclusive of canal; and as this is contract work of Irish navvies, the sigh with which our host alluded to this heavy item in plantation expenses was expressive. The work is too severe for African thews, and experience has shown it a bad economy to overtask the slave.—Russell’s description of the Houmas plantation of 6000 acres of Mississippi bottom lands.
“4 railroad contractor in one of the best cotton districts of the United States told me, that, having begun his work with negroes, he was substituting Irish and German laborers for them as rapidly as possible, with great advantage, (and this near midsummer.”’)—Olmsted’s Journey in the Back Country.
“The necessary labor and causes of vital fatigue and vital exhaustion attend- ing any part or all of the process of cotton culture does not compare with that of eur July harvesting ; it is not greater than attends the cultivation of Indian corn in the usual New England method. I have seen a weakly white woman the worse for her labor in the cotton field, but never a white man; and I have seen hundreds of them at work in cotton fields under the most unfavorable circum- stances, miserable, dispirited wretches and of weak muscles, subsisting mainly, as they do, upon corn bread. Mr. De Bow estimates one hundred thousand white men now engaged in the cultivation of cotton, being one ninth of the whole cotton force of the country.’”’—Zbid.
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This statement may be doubted; but when it is considered that the free white population in these states was 2,944,026 of whom there were in the large towns and cities only 293,360 persons, slave and free, say one half free, - - - - - - - - .- 144,026
leaving free population in the country, - - 2,800,000 it becomes evident that the larger portion must be non-slave- holding, and must get their support from the soil.
It is true, these free white men are the “ poor white trash,” pushed out from the best lands by the monopolizing spirit of the planting interest, ignorant, and degraded even in their own estimation by the necessity of field labor, their highest ambition to “own a nigger.” But even in them would be one solution of the cotton question.
Emancipation having been completed and the negro left to shift for himself, the property of the planter would be exclu- sively in his lands, and his first endeavor would be to make them available. What does his slave labor now cost him ?
Interest on a good field hand, value $1500 at 8 per et. $120 00
Insurance 2 per cent. - - - - : . 30 00 Food, clothing, medicines, and hospital treatment, 90 00 $240 00
Negro houses and repairs, waste of tools by ignorant use, and salaries of overseers, not enumerated. (it may be objected that $1500 is too high a valuation ;
but no account is made of the loss of interest and cost of.
maintaining the very young and very old hands required upon every plantation, and whose only return is during the picking season, the customary estimate of the proportion of field hands being one third of the slaves on each plantation.)
Or, in other words, $20 per month. Let any one refute this if he can,—and yet, at 10 cents per pound for cotton,
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the price of negroes rises, and planters continually invest their surplus profits in more land and more negroes.
It is therefore evident that the owner of land can afford to pay $20 per month wages, and that there is a class of white laborers at hand to whom such pay would be an income never dreamed of. It would doubtless be a work of time to organize upon the new system, and to remove from their minds the idea that field labor is degrading, but crops would be small, and prices would consequently be very high.
Let it be borne distinctly in mind that at 10 cents per pound, and even higher, this country has had and can hold almost a monopoly of the cotton markets of the world, fur- nishing Europe with about 80 per cent. of her whole con- sumption,—and that wages, equal to $20 per month, can be paid for its cultivation at that price. And if each field hand can make 8 bales of cotton of 450 pounds each, or 3600 pounds, then for each cent per pound above 10 cents the planter could afford to add $3 per month to his wages and still make the same profit which he now makes at 10 cents.*
We need not inquire what would be the effect of such wages upon laborers now employed in the north at $10 to $14. How many of the 480,000 free negroes who have learned to work for a living, would be attracted to the conge- nial climate of the cotton states? How many of the 50,000 fugitives who have had the energy to reach Canada, and sup-
* Few consumers are aware of the small fractions upon which this whole ques- tion depends. The following statement and table will help them to realize it :—
One pound of cotton will make 4 yards of 33-inch shirting of fair quality, such as is called for by the larger part of the trade of the country, and commonly sold at 8 cents. With cotton at 10 cts. per pound to the planter in Texas, or at 124 cts. at the mill, the manufacturer will get a fair profit. Three yards are required for a shirt.
One pound of cotton will make 6 yards of calico, such as is commonly sold at
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port themselves there, would return to their homes and their friends ?
It may be urged that laborers in the North, to whom wages of $10 to $14 per month are paid, are also furnished with board by their employers.
We think the superior quality of the cotton raised by free labor, as proved by the Germans in Texas, and the small farmers in Tennessee, would alone more than compensate the cost of board;—surely the amount of work performed by willing and intelligent labor, as compared with compulsory ignorant labor, with the use and economy of good tools, would far more than compensate.*
9 cents, and, upon the same basis as above, the manufacturer will get a fair
profit. Twelve yds. are required for a dress.
£3 2a 8 £e8 bes 3 Bei eE cliche: | hE ol cle aaa 35 gs° Eig Leer S z es g53 252 BEES | z eig | Eve | 228, | Gta | 2 | 4 cr Begs eeed weer = aS Fe goss ones sees 8 g B28 gases 3% Bes gees ES & 10 ets.| $20 00 24 cts. | $1 08 8 9 11 * | 28 00 243 « 1 10 8h 94 12 « | 26 00 254 « a2 84 94 13 |,» 29 00 264 « 114 83 94 14 * | 32 00 TA 1 16 9 93 IRs cefe Weae toa 273 « 1 18 94 98 16 “ | 38 00 284 « 1 20 94 10
No one will question that for a few years after emancipation prices would rule far above 10 cents, probably at 15 or 16, (to be eventually brought down by im- proved agricultural tools and machines, and a system of culture utterly impossi- ble under the slave system) yet at what small cost to the consumer, and at what extravagant wages to the laborer!
* Olmsted quotes the following statement of a well-informed capitalist and slaye- holder :—“In working niggers, we must always calculate that they will not labor
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Have we not proved that by the monopoly of the cotton lands by the slave oligarchy, and the exclusion of a self- respecting and respected class of white laborers, our working men are deprived of a participation in a branch of agriculture capable of being made the most profitable and self-sustaining of any which can be followed in this country, and requiring a residence in a climate far more healthy than the fever-and- ague regions of the west ?
It is true that the ill-drained, foul cities of the South are liable to epidemics and to the terrible scourge of yellow fever, but the upland cotton regions are unsurpassed in the salubrity of their climate, and the rich river bottoms of Louisiana and Alabama are proved, by the sanitary statistics of Dr. Cartwright of New Orleans and Dr. Nott of Mobile, as quoted in De Bow and Olmsted, to be the true resort of the inhabitants of the cities to avoid epidemics,—the diseases which prevail upon them being of types easily avoided and easily cured. And the cotton lands in Texas, above all, are adapted to white labor, being open to a cool, invigorating breeze from the gulf, almost certain to blow every day.*
If it is true that these lands stand high in point of salu-
at all except to avoid punishment, and they will never do more than just enough to save themselves from being punished, and no amount of punishment will prevent their working carelessly and indifferently. It always seems on the plantation as if they took pains to break all the tools and spoil all the cattle they possibly can, even when they know they will be directly punished for it.”
* “On the average of years the proportion of deaths to the number of persons living is positively more in the Northern than in the Southern States. For instance, the mortality in 1850 in the seven original free states was 1 in 68.66, but in the six original slave states only 1 in 78.30. The highest average in the old free states was 1 in 81.63 in Pennsylvania; the highest in the old slave states 1 in 91.93 in Georgia. In Florida and Texas, the most southern of the slave states, the figures were 1 in 93.67 and 1 in 69.79 respectively; in Maine and Massachusetts 1 in 77.29 and 1 in 51.23 respectively.
In Charleston, S. C., Dr. Nott ascertained from personal observation and
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brity while inhabited by the whiskey-drinking, pork-eating race which now occupies them, how much more true would it be if they were occupied by an intelligent yeomanry, and the country dotted with free schools.
The land required for cotton culture is a light sandy loam, easily worked, the ploughing being done with a light plough driven by one or two mules, at a quick walk; the cultivation similar to that of corn, and as capable of being carried on by improved machinery, instead of the universal hoe now used by the slaves. The space required for each plant varies, according to the richness of the soil, but by July 1 the ground is fully covered.* During the period of extreme heat little at- tention is required, and while northern laborers are sweltering in the hay field, under a sun as intense as in the south, the cotton planter merely watches the growth of the plant. The work of picking requires nimble fingers and the close atten- tion of all hands, men, women, and children. It is continued through the cool autumn, and in favorable seasons far into the winter. One of the great drawbacks to slave cultivation is the want of a more dense population, from which to draw an extra force during the picking season, and fields white with unpicked cotton are not seldom ploughed up to make ready for the planting of the new crop. This would not occur under the small allotment system of free labor.
inquiry, extending over a period of six years, that the average mortality of the city was 1 in 51, and that, whilst the deaths among the whites averaged only 1 in 58, those amongst the blacks averaged 1 in 44.
From the accounts which slaveholders give us of their climate, we should sup- pose it impossible for the white man to occupy his time regularly in out-door manual labor, without certain injury to his constitution; yet we find, according to the census tables, that in 1850, out of a white population of 6,184,477 persons of all ages and both sexes, there were 1,019,020 males, over fifteen years of age, engaged in out-door labor in the slave states—803,052 being employed in purely agricultural pursuits.””—Secession in America, by Thos. Ellison.
* Rows 3 to 5 feet apart, plants in the row 9 inches to 2 feet.
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According to statistics compiled by order of Congress in 1852, each field-hand employed upon strong fresh land aver- aged eight bales of cotton per annum, at the same time culti- vating corn enough for support.
The average is probably greater at the present time, owing to the use-of better tools, and of guano upon the uplands. The product upon rich bottom lands in Arkansas and Texas is even two bales to the acre, and one hand can cultivate six to ten acres of cotton and five of corn.
Under slave cultivation cotton land is rapidly exhausted, but under free cultivation the case would be far different. While the fibre of cotton contains scarcely any elements drawn from the soil, for each pound of clean fibre there are two to three pounds of seed largely composed of elements drawn from the soil, and it is by the waste of the seed that the land is exhausted.
An analysis of the fibre and seed, given in De Bow’s Re- sources, and in a work published in London, in 1850, by J. Forbes Royle, M. D., is as follows:—
100 parts of fibre will yield 0.9347 per ceut., ash, composed as follows :—
Carbonate of potassa with a trace of soda, = - 44.29
Phosphate of lime with a trace of maguesia, - 25.54
Carbonate of lime, - - - - - 8.97 do. of magnesia,- - - - - 6.75
Silica, - - - - - - - - 4.12
Sulphate of potassa, - - - - - 2.90
Alumina, - - - - - - - 1.40
Chloride of potassium
do. of magnesium,
Sulphate of lime, and loss, - - - 6.23
Phosphate of potassa,
Oxide of iron, (a trace,) 100.
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100 parts of seed will yield 3.936 per cent. of ash, com- posed as follows :—
Phosphate of lime with trace of magnesia, — - 61.34
do. potassa, - - - - - 31.73 Sulphate of potassa, = - - . - . 2.65 Silica, - - - - - - - - 1.68 Carbonate of lime, - - - - - AT
do. of magnesia, - - - - - 27 Chloride of potassium, - - - - - 20
Carbonate of potassa, Sulphate of lime, Sulphate of magnesia, and loss, - - 1.61
Alumina, and oxides of iron,
and manganese, 100.
Now as there are, at the least estimate, 250 parts of seed (by most authorities 300) to 100 parts of fibre, and about four times the mineral elements in the seed that there are in the fibre, it follows that the seed exhausts the soil ten times more than the fibre.
Under the slave system the surplus seed is used for ma- nure, but in such a rude and wasteful manner that most of its value is lost, being upon a plan much like manuring a cornfield by burying whole. corn in the hills.
Each hundred pounds of seed will yield 50 pounds of shell and 50 pounds of kernel; the kernel will give 125 pounds of oil, equal to 12 gallons, and 374 pounds of oil cake; the value of the crude oil is now 50 cents per gallon; of the oil cake, $25 per ton. :
The cake is admirable food for cattle, and by English anal- ysis, the value of the manure made by stock fed upon it is greater than that from any other food.
By the northern farmer it would be fed to stock upon the
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farm, and by the use of the manure the cotton field might be made more productive instead of being exhausted. The want of pasture, (which exists in many of the cotton states but not in Texas,) might be supplied by sowing corn for fodder, and feeding stock in the yard.
It would probably be useless to urge the saving and use of manure upon the rich cotton lands of the south for years to come; nevertheless the free farmer would utilize the seed for its commercial value.
Kstimated product of one acre of Texas cotton land :—
500 lbs. clean cotton, at 10 cents, - - - 50.00
1200 lbs. seed yielding 600 lbs. of kernel, giving 20 gallons crude oil, at 50 cents, - - 10.00 450 pounds oil cake, at 13 cents, - - 5.62 $65.62
The following articles are now manufactured from cotton seed :-—
A very excellent and cheap soap for family use ;
A soap for fulling mills ;
Oil for oiling wool in the process of manufacture ;
Oil for burning in common lamps (giving a clear flame without crusting upon the wick) and for a great variety of other purposes.*
* From the Wakulda, Ala., Times’ Correspondence.—I notice in a Western pa- per, that a concern in Cincinnati has commenced the manufacture of oil from cotton seed. I will mention a few facts which may be of use to somebody. There is a prejudice against cotton-seed oil, but it is owing mainly to the fact that the seeds have been extensively used for that purpose without hulling—the hull imparting to the oil a bitter taste and a gummy substance, which injures it for drying, and causes a smoke when burning: notwithstanding this, quantities of this oil have been mixed with linseed and lard oils, and the buyers have been none the wiser for it. Some three years since, a friend of mine commenced the manufacture of oil from cotton seed. The seeds were first perfectly hulled, so
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No one realizes the absolute necessity of an improved sys- tem of agriculture more than the intelligent planters, but they appear to be utterly blind to the fact that such improve- ments are impracticable, upon any extended scale, with igno- rant slave labor.
The following extracts from The Cotton Planter’s Manual, compiled by J. A. Turner a Georgia planter, and published in 1857, will give Southern opinion upon cotton cultivation, and will go far to prove it to be as yet in the rudest condition, although far better than in 1850 :—
“ Newbury, S. C., Agricultural Society Report: The plan of cultivation adopted by Dr. Cloud was tried here during the un- favorable season of 1845. The experiment even then would have warranted its continuance, as by the system of manuring, the poor soils of our State would be annually improved, instead of being impoverished as they are, under the ruinous course generally pursued.
* * * We are not, however, one of those who believe that cotton culture is incompatible with the improvement of the soil, and instead of recommending our planters to decrease the number of their bales, we only go so far as to advise them to produce a greater number upon fewer acres.
* * * When our small farmers become impressed with the necessity of cultivating their lands properly, and tilling them like gardens, they will soon render themselves indepen- dent of the fluctuations of the markets and the times.”*
Dr. Cloud of Alabama writes as follows to the Governor, in answer to questions propounded by him :— “Our own sage Franklin, in his friendly advice to Poor
‘that nothing but the meat was used. After the oil was extracted, it went through a clarifying process, (a simple one, but very perfect,) leaving it as clear and pure as the best olive. For burning it has no superior, and for the table it can scarce- ly be surpassed, for it has deceived and is still deceiving many good judges of the article. My friend says, ‘ we dare not call it cotton-seed oil, for fear it might prejudice the sale.’ ”
*It may be asked how the small farmers are to become impressed, in a State where 25 per cent..of the white inhabitants cannot read or write.
a
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Richard, has assured us ‘ that by constantly taking out of the meal tub and never putting in, we shall soon find the bottom.’ Philosophically true, this—good homespun, sound doctrine ; yet plain and simple as be this doctrine, the cotton planter knows it only in song—his acquaintance with this golden truth is theoretic only. His exhausted fields, and dwarfish puny cotton, tell tales more positively contradictory and gloomy than I have room or inclination to enumerate.
* * * You nor I, my very dear sir, may never live to see the day when that very last man shall cease to lay his cotton rows up one hill and down another, thus draining off the vitality of his land every three or four feet, to the depth of his puny plough, or to waste the sure means of keeping up the fertility of his fields, by feeding his stock in the public roads.
* * * The land is first ruined by the one-crop practice of cotton, then turned out to pasture. It soons runs together, produces little grass and sustains poor stock. The difficulty is not so much in the injury, which the hungry stock did in grazing the pasture, as the ruinous system of culture, which prevented any pasture at all. Land under an improving sys- tem of culture is not thus affected. Under my system, or any one like it, furnishing the amount and value of pasturage that it does, the raising and keeping of stock, mules, hogs, and cattle, necessary to supply the wants of the plantation, becomes a source of absolute profit, the land is made rich and continues improving in the elements of fertility.
The rich compost manure applied to the land once every four years, in quantities sufficient to make a bale of cotton per acre, continues to improve the land, and thus increase annually the grain crop and pasturage. All this is simple, plain, and practical.
This country is objected to by planters, and others taking their cue from them, on account of its ‘short bite’ and ster- ile pasturage, as they are pleased to call it. Nor has there been a designed misrepresentation in this; it is the result of observation derived from the working of this universally draining system of growing cotton. Now the facts which my practice and observation under my system have demon- strated, are these: that no country is equal to this (Alabama) for good and ‘long-nip pasturage. Our climate is remarkably favorable to rich and luxuriant pasturage. The red man of the forest, and the pioneer white man that came here in ad- vance of our scratching plough, tell us they found the wild
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oat and native grasses waving thick, as high as a man’s head, and so entwined with the wild pea vine, as to make it difficult to ride among it, all over this country. Every cotton planter has heard of these fine primitive pasture ranges, and many have seen them. If the country or the climate has been cursed in our appearance as planters here, it has been in the wasting system that we introduced and continue to practice.
* * * With a climate and soil peculiarly adapted to the production of cotton, our country is also equally favorable to the production of all the necessary cereals, and as remarkably favorable to the perfect development of the animal economy, in fine horses, fine active mules, good milch cows, superior sheep and hogs, and for fruit of every variety (not tropical) it is eminently superior. If this condition of things be fact, and I assert it to be such, why is it that we find so many wealthy cotton planters, whose riches consist entirely of their slaves and worn-out plantations.
In every other section of this country, north, east, and west, the proceeds of the productive industry of the people in the grand aggregate, are retained at home, while we, the planters of the south, producing annually, from a single one of our crops, $150,000,000, pay out the grand aggregate to others for bread, bacon, and mules, all of which we may, under a proper system of plantation economy, grow at home, and thus we may also retain at home this large sum of gold, the substance of our fields, to be expended in home improve- ments.
* * * Tam entirely convinced, from my own experience in making manure, that it is not only practicable, but a per- fectly easy task to prepare, upon every plantation in the cot- ton region, great or small, 1,500 bushels of an excellent arti- cle of compost, per annum, to the hand, at a cost of less than two cents per bushel, by the assistance of the stock of horses, cows, and hogs, upon properly arranged lots.*
* * * Tt is immaterial what number of hands may work on the place, we allot to each twenty acres, and upon the condition, proceed to divide the land into four equal parts, adopting the system of four years’ shift as best suited to our plantation economy.
* At the time these letters were written, no method had been discovered for separating the shell from the kernel of the cotton seed, by which, and by pressing out the oil, the seed is made good food for stock. A cheap method has since been perfected.
21
*** Tn the next place, I fix the rotation, and shift
thus: five acres to each hand in cotton, ten acres for grain, and five acres to lie fallow. I plant cotton on the same land once in four years, always on the fallow land, with a dressing of 500 bushels compost or stock-yard manure to the acre.
* * * By the 1st of July my cotton stands five to six feet high, and I have it topped by the 10th.
* * * Strictly follow this plain and simple process, and if the land does not reward your pains-taking, with five or siz: fold the quantity per acre, of a superior staple, than has at any previous year been taken from it, in its natural state, I will present the experimenter with one bushel of my improved seed, with which to perfect the experiment.
* * * The constant and invariable success which attends this improvement in my hands, is the result of a strict and scrupulous adherence to system in its management.
* * * Under a system affording such facilities for grain in abundance, rich pasturage for fat home-raised stock of every variety, and land improving annually in fertility, the culture of cotton becomes a process of gardening, productive and remunerating.
* * * In other words, after innumerable experiments and tests (from 1844 to 1856) this system has been adopted as the one best and surest, calculated to feed and clothe the oper- atives of the plantation, supply all the stock necessary to its various uses, improve annually and protect the fertility of the land, and leave at the end of each year, the proceeds of the cotton crop, as the clear profit of the plantation with all its outfit.”
Among other advantages, freedom from disease and from insects are promised as the result of Dr. Cloud’s system.
The great adaptation of a product requiring such culture to a system of small allotments rather than large plantations will be evident, as well as the absolute necessity of intelligent labor to bring such a system of cultivation into general use.
Mr. M. W. Phillips, a Mississippi planter, makes frequent communications to the Southern Agricultural Papers; the following extracts are suggestive :—
*T do not regard some of our large crop-masters as worthy of imitation—they make eight, ten, aye twelve bales per hand, but it is by working negroes and wasting land.
22
I know, from repeated trials, that good seed will produce say as six to seven, that is, an acre which will produce 600 lbs. with ordinary seed, has produced here 700 lbs.*
Col. Vick deserves more credit as an observing planter than any man who has dabbled in experiments. He has been improving seed these fifteen years: and proof—he works 50 hands, and made, the past year (1849) as bad as it was, nine bales to the hand! ‘Tell that to the b’hoys who think there is no virtue in improving seed.
Sugar-loaf seed is best upon new ground, rich, sweet gum land. I have made over 41,000 pounds from twenty-four acres of land, the first year it was cleared.”
From the American Agriculturist :—
‘‘ Edisto Island, one of the largest of the South Carolina group, is the principal point where this valuable crop (Sea- island cotton) is cultivated.
Salt-marsh mud is much used for manure * * * Mr. J. FE. Townsend prefers to use it as soon as dug, spread upon the land and ploughed in. He is the only man upon the island who uses ploughs to any extent. If the plough were substi- tuted for the hoe, twice as much manure would be made.
Cattle are easily kept here, living in winter in the cotton and clover fields. * * * No rotation of crops is practiced.
The amount of labor to grow and prepare for market 100 pounds of Sea-island cotton, is estimated at fifty days’ work ; that is, the small amount of labor a negro does at ‘ task work.’ The first process of preparing land for cotton, after manuring, is listing; that is, hoeing the grass off the old beds into the alleys. <A ‘task’ of this work is one fourth to three-eighths of an acre a day. The whole task system is equally light, and is one that I most unreservedly disapprove of, because it pro- motes idleness, and that is the parent of mischief.”
* The very names, and the endless number of varieties of cotton, suggest the need of intelligent labor :—Sugar-loaf or prolific, Dean seed, Vicks’ 100 seed, Guatemala, Jethro, Lewis’ prolific, Mastodon, Banana Mammoth, &c., &e., &e.
tSea-island cotton is worth 40 to 60 cents per pound, 50 days’ task work— 100 pounds, at 50 cents, therefore produces $50.
23
Analysis of Sea-island cotton, made by the State Chemist of Maryland, Nov. 7, 1854, at the request of a planter on
Edisto Island :— PRODUCT PER ACRE.
Fibre, - : - - - - 200 pounds. Seeds, - - - - - = $600) = General composition (in pounds) of 200 lbs. fibre, 600 lbs. seed. Warten, hat Bee - = 9.44 57.06 Organic matter, = - - - - 188.06 518.76 Ash or mineral matter, - - - 2.50 24.18 200 600
Composition of the above ash, as taken away by a crop
from one acre, in pounds :— BY THE FIBRE. BY THE SEED.
Potash, - - - - 0.881 8.403 Soda, - - - - 0.128 0.266 Lime, - - - - 0.418 1.451 Magnesia, - - - 0.237 3.320 Per-oxide-of iron, - - 0.051 0.132 Silicic Acid, — - - - 0.007 trace Phosphoric Acid, — - - 0.136 8,669 Sulphuric Acid, - - 0.088 0.968 Chloride, - - SOWGG \5 se ,Onlts Carbonic Acid, - - 0.388 0.868
2,500 24.180 (N. B. No rotation of crops is practiced on Edisto Island, and one man uses ploughs! Population 5 to 6,000.) From the American Cotton Planter:
“ Of one hundred cases of rust* among the cotton, perhaps scarcely one is owing to an unfavorable season, and ninety- nine to defective cultivation.
** * We ask everything of Nature, and are unwilling to do more than is absolutely necessary. The unavoidable consequence is, that in a few years we exhaust the best of our lands; they then refuse to yield adequate crops, and produce diseases of the veyetable, which blast our hopes. Not having been accustomed to systematic manuring of our land, we think it very laborious and even expensive. It is indeed not
* One of the most common and serious evils the plant is subject to.
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so; it is much less troublesome and expensive than clearing and taking in new land.” From the Southern Cultivator :—
“Tn an excellent article on ‘ Cotton Culture and selection of seed,’ in our last issue, Mr. A. W. Washburn of Yazoo, Miss., says, that his crop averages a bale of cotton of 400 Ibs. to the acre, although he plants on prairie land, twenty-five years under hard cultivation, without manure. He makes ten bales to the hand.”
But we might continue to add proofs of the bad economy of slave culture, until our pamphlet should become a thick volume.
Let it be admitted that the foregoing argument in favor of free labor is theoretical, a plausible case got up by a special pleader who has had no practical experience in the matter upon which he writes :
Where is the opportunity for a practical test? Is not the case strong enough to demand one ?
We may safely, although unwillingly, abate our opposition to slavery as a national sin, provided an opportunity shall be given to test its duration by the unerring action of sound political economy, the practical application of God’s eternal justice, which can work no wrong.
But where is the opportunity? Every acre of cotton and sugar land is monopolized and cursed by slavery.
Let it then be the policy of the government, if immediate emancipation is not the result of the present struggle, at least to prepare the way for the overthrow of slavery by the com- petition of free labor upon the fertile soil of Texas. Texas contains ten million acres of the best cotton land in the country, capable of producing ten to fifteen million bales of cotton. Let the laboring men of the country demand that they shall have a share in this most profitable branch of agri- culture. Texas has now 420,000 free white inhabitants and
25
only 180,000 slaves; make it a free state and slavery will be hemmed in upon the south and all fillibustering expeditions will be ended forever. To purchase all the slaves therein at $500 each would cost but $90,000,000.
If it is true that free labor is cheaper than slave labor, if it is true that free-grown cotton will drive slave-grown cotton from the market, then is this the true method of ending the whole question; for no one believes that slavery would last a moment in any of the old slave states, if it were rendered unprofitable to the owners of the slaves.
Texas contains cotton and sugar land enough to supply three times the entire crop now raised in this country, and if it is true that free labor can produce these great staples at the cheapest rate, then will slavery end,—the law of competition is inexorable.
Have not the laborers of the free states a right to demand the extension of freedom over at least a portion of the cotton and sugar lands of the country, to compensate them for the hardships and poverty they will have been called upon to bear by the effort of the slave oligarchy to extend slavery?
Have not the cotton spinners of the world the right to say to the slaveholder:—You have proved by the experience of the last few years that with your slave labor you cannot give us cotton enough ; we must try free labor and see if that be found wanting. By the system of political economy applied by De Bow to the system of slavery, high price and not low price makes a large increase of the production of cotton im- possible although the amount of land adapted to its cultiva- tion is unlimited ; and, as applied to slave cultivation, his ar- gument is sound, absurd as it appears.
He says, “ The general idea used to be that the only limit- ation to the production of cotton was the proper climate and soil, and that of course there was scarcely any limit in the
26
United States. But this is a great mistake. The great lim- itation to production is labor. Whenever cotton rises to ten cents, labor becomes too dear to increase production rapidly.”
In 1850, De Bow estimated the amount of capital invested in cotton cultivation, in negroes, land, cattle, tools, &c., at $800,000,000, producing for the previous ten years an annual crop of 2,173,000 bales of cotton; therefore, he argued, it would require the earning, or transfer from other business, of $80,000,000, to make a permanent increase of 271,625 bales cotton per annum.
Since that estimate was made the price of negroes has doubled; yet the cotton crop has almost doubled, and the price of the last three years has ruled above ten cents.
What does this prove? assuredly that the cotton spinners have paid a most exorbitant profit nearly all of which has been invested in fictitious property, namely, negro slaves who will one day lose their entire value as property, by becoming free men. Then this immense investment which will have been paid for by the cotton spinners, will have been utterly lost. Had this sum been paid in wages to free men, instead of being sunk in fictitious property, who can realize the result.
Again, the ‘cotton spinners have a right to demand that a section of cotton country shall be opened to free labor, for the reason, that whatever may be the result of this war as it re- lates immediately to slavery in the old cotton states, they must inevitably pass through a period of anarchy and confusion and of consequent small crops, while the opening of China and Japan is making more demand for cotton goods than ever before.
The planters have been unwillingly drawn into the war, but are now in it, body and soul. They have been the goy- erning class of their states; there is no middle class to take their place,—by our success they are to be beaten, humiliated,
Q27
rendered poor, their prestige destroyed,—and their power to control the masses, who will be indignant and enraged that they have been deceived and led into a war from which they will have gained nothing, and worse than nothing, will also be destroyed. What can result but anarchy and confusion ?
Have not the business men of the country a right to claim that, by free labor, the price of cotton shall be kept at that point at which while yielding to the cultivator a large profit, the country can retain its control of the markets of Europe, and so maintain our export trade and keep the balance in our favor ?
Have not our soldiers the right to demand as their best compensation for subduing the rebellion, that at least one small portion of the country which they will restore to the Union shall be kept open to them for peaceful occupation, and not conquered simply that it may be kept forever under the curse of slavery ?
What intelligent farmer will deny his ability, with one able-bodied assistant, good horses and tools, to cultivate 40 acres of light sandy loam, in corn and wheat? At the west, a man and boy can cultivate 100 acres in corn; and when corn is worth $1 at the south it can be afforded at 25 cents at the west.
Then let him suppose himself upon Texas cotton lands, the best in the world, producing 500 pounds clean cotton to the acre. He will put 20 acres in cotton, and if he be blessed with a reasonable family of children he will require very little extra assistance to pick it. He will pick 10,000 pounds of cotton, and will, for some years to come, be certain of re- ceiving at least 10 cents net, after paying all expenses of sale ;— $1000 annual income from one-half his land.
Any one who doubts that his other 20 acres will yield wheat, ‘corn, or other products sufficient for the food of his family,
28
may have his doubts removed by reading Olmsted’s Texas Journey.
The following passage is from a letter published in the New York Times, the author of which is known to the editor, and is esteemed a gentleman of veracity and sound judgment :—
“There is one case I remember, which is to the point: the man lives in Choctaw County (Texas) and was born in Georgia. He does not own a negro, but has two boys, one sixteen, the other twelve. With the assistance of these two boys, year before last, he made twenty-two bales of cotton, plenty of corn and sufficient small grain for himself and fam- ily, although the season was bad in his neighborhood, while many of his neighbors, with five or six slaves, did not exceed him, and some made less.
This man is, however, far more intelligent and progressive in farming than those about him; he does not plant as did his grandfather, because his father did so, but endeavors to improve, and is willing to try an experiment occasionally.”—
The climate of the cotton lands of Texas allows a large proportion of land to each hand, owing to the length of the season.
The planting of corn and other grain being in January and February.
Cotton, in March and April.
The harvest of grain, in June and July.
Cotton, August to December.
Let the cotton spinners ponder well upon the following statement :-—
A mill of 40,000 spindles to manufacture goods from No. 22 yarn, medium goods,—which the bulk of the trade of the country requires,—would cost to-day about $17 per spindle, (including tenements, ) : t : ; . $680,000
and should have a cash capital . : - $220,000
making total investment, . E ; - $900,000 Such a mill would consume about 8,000 bales cotton in a year.
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It being admitted on all sides, that the cotton now raised is barely sufficient to supply existing spindles, what demand does the erection of such a mill make upon the south ?
At an average of 8 bales to the hand, 1,000 able-bodied field hands, worth before this war began $1,200 each, say
$1,000 each, . : , . $1,000,000 500 children and old Haas ina only for pick- ing, a $400 . : : : : : 200,000 1,200,000 8,000 acres of cleared cotton land, a $20, ; 160,000 500 mules and horses a $100, : ; ‘ 50,000 Gins, presses, ploughs, tools, &c., . : ‘ 50,000 $1,450,000
Rather a startling exhibit, that for every $900,000 invested in machinery at the north, $1,450,000 must be invested or transferred from other employment at the south, to give a per- manent supply of raw material for the use of the $900,000.
What have we done at the north during the past two years ? We have erected mills containing 400,000 spindles, not aver- aging so low a number of yarn as No. 22, but requiring, by accurate estimate, not less than 50,000 bales of cotton per annum.
England, in the same two years, has added not less than 2,000,000 spindles to her number.*
What is the result? The cotton spinners have paid a price for cotton which has caused a constant drain upon the slave- breeding states for good field hands at $1200 each, and yet have been, year after year, at the mercy of the weather, well assured that only in a favorable season could cotton enough be raised to supply their wants.
By the statistics of the increase in the slave population
* Probably nearer 4,000,000.
30
previously given, the total increase appears to be 748,324 from 1850 to 1860, equal to 23,25, per cent. This per cent- age, applied to the eight principal cotton states, would have given an increase of 422,464; but their actual increase has been 613,096,—thereby proving the transfer from the slaye- breeding states of 190,652.
The enormous increase in the crops of cotton in the latter half of the decade proves this transfer to have been prinei- pally made then, and to have been mainly composed of able- bodied field hands of an average value of not less than $900 each. The transfer, therefore, represents a capital of $171,568,800 in human chattels alone.
The thing was working its own cure; the profit was becom- ing so great that free labor must have been used more and more, no matter what the idea of degradation connected with field labor. Slave labor could no longer supply the demand, and in this is one key to the rebellion. The slaveholders knew their system to be doomec, unless they could extend slavery and re-open the slave trade,
It may be argued that there is no constitutional power to emancipate the slaves in Texas, even if compensation is granted; but let it not be forgotten that this most ungrateful State has utterly repudiated the constitution, and would seek the alliance of foreign enemies, even savages; and that there is the greatest reason for applying martial law, and crippling her resources for the present by confiscating her slaves, be- cause she is the only State in the Southern Confederacy which can supply their armies with salt meats, without which they cannot be kept in the field.
Why then grant compensation? Assuredly not until the war is ended, and then grant it simply because it will be ex- pedient that the land owner, about to try the great experiment of cultivating cotton and sugar by free labor, should be fur- nished with ample capital to work to the best advantage.
ie
31
Let then Texas be made free,—
Let arrangements be completed by the purchase and ex- tinction of the title of the Indians to the territory lying between Texas and Kansas, and that territory prepared for a free State,—
Let a grant of lands be made for the purpose of building a Railroad from St. Joseph, Missouri, via Lawrence, across the fertile cotton lands of the Arkansas and Red Rivers to the wheat lands of north-eastern Texas; thence down the valley of the Brazos River, through the best lands in Texas to Gal- veston* (a distance of only about 600 miles, by which Galves- ton would be brought within four or five days of Boston.) Slavery will then be hemmed in completely by the free pop- ulation a railroad is sure to bring; its further extension rendered impossible; the cultivation of its great staples fairly begun by free labor; and this war, which is not worth fight- ing except for such a gain, will indeed havea glorious ending.
Then may we safely leave slavery in the old slave states to die a certain and a peaceful death, protected as far as it may be by the guarantees of the constitution, so often invoked for its protection,—but which our fathers never would have per- mitted to form a part of that instrument had they dreamed, for a single instant, that slavery would continue to exist at this period of our history.
Then may we cease to “tremble for the future of our country when we remember that God is just.”
* This Railroad is already in progress, about 120 miles from Galveston are completed, and the surveys made to the Red River. The route through the In- dian territory to Kansas is indicated upon a map of Texas published in Galves- ton in 1860.
—
APPENDIX.
Since the foregoing was printed I have succeeded in obtaining the Texas Almanac for 1859, a violent pro-slavery publication, its testimony as to the amount of labor performed by whites is therefore conclusive evidence that the demand for slave labor in Texas is not from any necessity arising from the climate but simply the choice of lazy white men, who are its correspondents.
I find therein the census of Texas, compiled by the assessors and collectors of each county, for the purpose of taxation. It is not en- tirely complete, but the details of 114 counties are given.
There were in these 114 counties,
White inhabitants, - - - - - - 308,532 Slaves, - - - - - - - - 129,702 Total, - . - - - - - - 438,234 Acres of land in cultivation, - - - - 1,767,014 Area of the State, acres, = - - - - 175,594,560 Of the slaves above enumerated, - - - 129,702 There were in the cities and towns, - - 10,016 Upon the plantations, - - - - - 118,686
The usual proportion of able-bodied field hands in the other slave states is one-third, but as the slaves in Texas have been principally obtained by purchase or emigration, it is safer to allow one-half, and we will admit that every able-bodied hand may be employed in field culture (an assumption entirely improbable). This will give a force of slave laborers of 59,346.
The amount of land allotted to each field hand, as stated in the detailed accounts of many of the counties, averages 15 acres in cotton, corn, &c., &c., rarely more.
Total number of acres in cultivation, - - - 1,767,014 59,346 slave laborers, at 15 each, - - - 890,190 Balance cultivated by free white labor, - - 876,824
The following table will prove that in nearly all the counties which have the very largest number of acres in cotton, the slave
3
34
force, allowing one-half to be employed in field labor, is utterly inadequate to the cultivation of the land returned as under culti-
vation :—
Population. Acres in Acres
aa aa > to 4 thi
County. Position. Free. | Slave. | Total. | Corn. Wheat.|Cotton.| Sugar.| Miscel.| Total. | Slaves.
Austin, . |S. E. on Brazos River,) 4564) 2899) 7463) 14982) 829) 20464) 1/ 1208] 37484] 26 —
Rastrop, . - |Ceutre on Colorado, . 3748] 2241) 5989) 17852) 1311) 10725 84 819] 30791] 27— Brazoria, . |Coaston Brazos, . . 1751| 4516) 6267] 10815! . . | 10023) 7187] 1533) 29560) 13 Caldwell, . |Centre on Guadalupe, | 2485) 1516) 4001 11485} 1561} 8378} 351] 897] 22672} 30 Cass, - . N. E. on Red River,. 6112). 4816) 10928) 28474 5552) 20168) 36] 4368! 58598] 24 Colorado, .'S.E.on Colorado, . 3468} 2431] 5899) 11052; 617] 15863 73| 1540) 29145) 24 Dallas, . [North on Trinity, . .| 6143) 838) 6981) 12236 15508 49} 354) 6957/ 35104) 83 Fayette, . . |Centre on Colorado, . | 6603) 2854) 9457) 20295 2048) 18723 10} 2000) 43066} 30 Fort Bend, . |Near Coast on Brazos,| 1420) 2714) 4134) 7407) . «| 12463) 690) 254) 20814) 15 Gonzales, . |Centre on Guadalupe, | 4233) 2811! 7044) 19452 991) 16193) 205) 1212) 38053 27 Harrison, .|N.E.on Sabine, . .| 5863) 8408) 1427] 41841 19440) 51708 53] 2140'115182| 27 Jasper, . |S. E.on Neches, . . 2071} 1198) 3269) 7152) 226; 5050 161} 1654 14243) 24 Lamar, . North on Red River,. | 5226} 1773| 6999) 14884 4006] 2848 31) 4378] 26147) 30 Lavaca, . . |Southnear Coast, .| 3426) 1481) 4907] 10614) 442) 9346 74| 294) 20770} 28 Limestone, . |Centre on Brazos, . 3090 953) 4043) 10107, 1225) 3652 214) 2443) 17641! 37 Nacogdoches. East on Angelina R., 5796| 2047! 7843) 20038 1589) 11323) 14) 5257) 38221] 37 Panola, . [Easton Sabine, . .| 4708/ 2414) 7122) 19401} 928) 14067 31] 5090) 39517] 33 Red River, . |North on Red River,. | 3877| 2039) 5916] 14657, 2805) 7798 15) 3064) 28339) 28 Rusk, . . |East on Sabine, . . 8413) 4744) 13157| 37532) 4741) 25782 50) 12384) 80489} 34 Titus, . . |N. E. on Red. River, . 6025} 1881) 7906) 18987) 2272) 9872 92} 5227) 36450) 40 Upshur, . .|N. E.on Sabine, . . | 5999} 2801] 8800) 22515) 3692) 16692 45| 3123) 46077] 33 Washington, |Centre on Brazos, .| 5424) 5853) 11277] 25820) 2420) 28886] 417) 5595) 63138) 22 Williamson,. |Centre, . . . . .| 2903) 876) 3779) 11100, 9350) 1578) . . 790| 22618} 52 Wood, . |N. E. on Sabine, . .| 3254) 733) 3987} 8336) 1099) 3194 31) 1841) 14502} 39
106602] 64837)171439/417934 82652/324654| 10219) 74070/908620
In estimating the number of acres to one-halt the slaves, no deduction is made for the slaves in towns.
The following extracts from the Texas Almanac are cited as en- forcing the argument of the preceding pages.
Note especially the account of the wheat lands, lying around the head waters of the Brazos and Trinity Rivers, in the line of the railroad suggested upon page 31.
“The capacity of Northern Texas, the counties before named, in point of soil, for the production of wheat, is astonishing, and may sound fabulous to those who have not seen and examined its bound- less fields of fertile lands extending from Red River to the Brazos at Waco, and from Kaufman county to Belknap. Its resources in this regard cannot well be over-estimated. There is nowhere to be found so large a body of rich, productive land, favored with so genial aclimate. Take Dallas county, for example: it contains 900 square miles, or 576,000 acres, (the other counties the same.) It is an under-estimate to put down two thirds of this, or 384,000 acres, as good tillable land. Take two thirds of this, 256,000 acres, for wheat culture, leaving one third, 128,000, for the other small grains and produce. Put the average yield per acre at 20 bushels, and we have 5,120,000 bushels as the product of the crop of one county.
35
Collin, Grayson, and perhaps other counties, have a larger propor- tion of tillable land than Dallas, and can produce more, though some counties cannot produce so much. The average capacity of the counties, comprising the Sixteenth Judicial Distriet—Dallas, Collin, Grayson, Cook, Denton, Wise, Jack, Young, Parker, Tarrant, Ellis, and Johnson, leaving out the unorganized counties of Archer, Throckmorton, Clay, and Montague—may safely be set down at 5,006,000 bushels each, or an aggregate for the twelve counties, embracing an area of 10,800 square miles, of 60,000,000 bushels. It is only meant that the counties named are capable of producing this grand result when its waste fertile lands, now lying in idleness, are brought into cultivation, besides producing the other small grains required by the county.
{In contemplation of this immense production, which will doubt- less approach realization from year to year, we are forced to the conclusion that it cannot be many years before this great staple will be forced to seek a foreign market. A very few years more, and we shall see trains of freight cars coming to Galveston, heavily loaded with flour and wheat for shipment to Northern ports, to sup- ply the Northern markets before their own wheat can be matured. Eps.— Texas Almanac. |
The wheat grows luxuriantly through the winter, affording the finest pasturage for stock. Its value in this regard cannot well be over-estimated. Pasturage is a great benefit in more than one re- spect, and is absolutely necessary to the safety of the crop. If attacked by the killing frosts that sometimes occur in the latter part of March and early part of April, after the stalk is in “the boot,” the crop is destroyed. Grazing retards its top growth and keeps it back until this critical period has past. Grazing also causes the roots to grow and take a firm set in the earth. The tramping of the ground by stock is a great benefit to the crop, settling the earth, setting the roots, and answering every purpose of rolling the ground, which is necessary where it cannot be grazed. One hundred acres will support one hundred head of stock from December to the 15th of March, keeping them sleek and fat through the most rigorous winter, until the rising of grass on the prairies, in the spring. We thus have as good beef and as fat stock and horses in February as in May, without any expense. Intelligent farmers concur in saying that it will pay well to grow wheat for grazing alone; but when we consider that the best pasturage in the world may thus be obtained through the winter for stock, with a positive advantage to the wheat crop, it forms an important item in the value of the crop.
Advantages of Texas Cotton Lands, by Dr. J. R. Robson of Round Top.
Experiments already made, have abundantly proved that the portion of the earth’s surface, upon which cotton can be successfully grown, is extremely limited and circumscribed, while the uses and demands for this staple seem to be rapidly extending and embracing
36
the world’s entire population. This fact being admitted, it follows that the intrinsic value of cotton lands, other things being equal, must continue to increase, and it must become more and more im- portant to the cotton-grower to devise every means to increase the amount of the yield in proportion to the increased demand. We here propose to show the decided advantage to the cotton-grower, of the soil and climate of Texas, over all the other cotton-growing States of the Union:
1st. Our seasons are much longer than any other State enjoys.
2d. The nature of our soil is such, that the staple possesses more strength and fineness, and generally commands a better price, other things being equal, by about one cent per pound.
Even our ordinary cottons are rarely injured by the frost, nor are they so mixed with sand (as is often the case elsewhere) as to injure machinery.
3d. A large portion of our State which is particularly adapted to its growth, lies contiguous to the coast, and the freighting of it to market, in a few years, will be less, by far, than the cost can ever be, from large portions of the best cotton regions.
4th. Its maturity being earlier, and facilities greater or equal to other countries, our cottons must have a decided advantage from this fact.
5th. Having a much longer season, we will ever be able to save more to the hand than the other and less favored cotton districts.
6th. But above all, we can make it with less labor.
Now, in most of the States mentioned, it requires from four to six workings, protracting the labor through the hot summer months, in its cultivation, while we, by two, and very frequently, one plough- ing and hoeing, are able to make more than our long seasons will afford us time to save. I well remember, in the year 1852, that
“on the 10th day of June I gathered from a large field in Walker county, Texas, a limb of cotton which had upon it eight bolls of cotton, from the size of a partridge-ege to full grown. The same limb I carried to Georgia, and after a week’s detention at my home in Middle Georgia, I was induced by a friend to visit the great cotton-growing region of Southwestern Georgia. What was my surprise, you may imagine, to see the hurry and bustle of man and beast, to clean the cotton of grass which was only from ankle to half-knee high, and when, a month earlier, I left the same plant in Texas, near as high as my head. Yet these lands in Georgia are eagerly sought, and at high prices, by very intelligent and accom- plished planters, who become wealthy and prosperous by their cul- tivation, and are doing a vast deal in the way of beautifying and increasing the already great facilities of the great State in which they live. The durability of our soil is yet another decided and overwhelming advantage we command. That its general depth is by far, greater than can be found in any other cotton State (I mean our table, or uplands) cannot be denied. They have a greater uni-
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formity and more level surface, hence can never wash like abrupt and hilly lands; for all who have ever cultivated cotton, must know the importance of having the surface clean of everything, save the cotton, if they expect a fair yield; and when this is done, the ex- tremely hard rains which are common in our southern climate, nearly take off, not only the surface soil, but also, in solution, a large part of the active chemicals required in the growth and de- velopment of plants. Hence, we must conclude, ere many years shall pass away, the millions of acres which are now only furnishing food for the deer and their roaming companions, will bless the w orld by a more useful product, and our beautiful prairies, now unculti- vated, will furnish happy homes for countless thousands.
The mode of cultivation for cotton usually pursued in the western part of the State is as follows: The land is first thrown up in good beds with a two-horse Casey plough, which is used upon the black, stiff land, but the diamond-wing plough is used on the more sandy soil. This is done in December January, or February. It is thus permitted to lie till about the 10th of March, by which time the ground usually becomes well pulverized and in good condition for planting, which should now be commenced. A common bull-tongue plough will answer to open the furrow for the seed. If the beds previously thrown up are covered with weeds or grass, at the time of planting, be sure and cover with the same plough; and after six or eight days, run a board or block over the bed. So soon as the cotton has formed the fourth leaf, run round each row with a turn- ing plough, one or two furrows on each side with the bar of the plough next to the cotton, turning the earth away from it. If the middle ground between the rows is covered with grass and weeds, whic: are not ploughed up or covered by these furrows, then run - additional furrows for that purpose, your hands following, at the same time, with hoes, and thinning the cotton nearly to a stand. This being done, the only work remaining will be the finishing ploughing, which should be done according to the season, and always in time to prevent the grass and weeds from getting a start. This last ploughing may be done with the solid sweep, if the ground is dry, but if wet, then with the turning plough, while your hands, with trim hoes, make a finish, or lay the crop by. The average yield of cotton, west of the Brazos, I think, may be put down safely at about 1200 pounds of seed cotton per acre, though for some years in suc- cession, 2000 pounds have been made.
Early cotton is in blossom about the 20th of May. Cotton com- mences to open generally: by the Ist of August, though there is much of it open and ready to pick before that time. The usual time of picking cotton among planters generally, is about the 10th of August on bottom lands, and earlier on uplands. Eight bales per hand, weighing five hundred pounds each, is about the average
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on well-managed plantations. Our bottom lands will average two thousand pounds, or more, to the acre; uplands yield from twelve to fourteen hundred pounds to the acre. Ten bales may be made and gathered by each hand; and sometimes more is raised, but seldom gathered, by a single hand. The season for gathering cotton is from three to four weeks longer in Texas than in Alabama, and I think the same may be said of most of the other cotton States.
Cane requires a higher cultivation than corn or cotton; in fact, to do it justice, it should be worked once in ten days, and very thoroughly each time. Ploughing cane should cease “by the 20th of June, as it has, by that time, generally attained a sufficient size to shade the ground completely, and thus smother the grass, ete. It should, however, be gone over occasionally, to cut out the tie vine, which is troublesome on our plantations. Rolling commences about the 15th of October, and continues until Christmas, generally.
The average yield per acre is about sixteen hundred pounds; ten thousand pounds of sugar; and eighty gallons of molasses to each thousand pounds, is usually made to each hand, with fair management.
GENERAL Hints AND SUGGESTIONS TO THE FARMER APPLI- CABLE TO THE SEVERAL MONTHS OF THE YEAR.
January.
The first thing to be looked to, even on our most productive soils, should be the breaking down and scattering the limbs of the cotton plant, and the corn-stalks to be ploughed in and restored to the land, as furnishing the best and most convenient vegetable manure, either to keep up the genial qualities of good lands, or to improve the pro- ductive powers of the lighter soils. Upon the thinner lands should be scattered all the waste cotton-seed, usually left to rot round the gin-house, engendering sickness and creating most unsavory odors.
July.
This month should be especially dear to every American heart. To it belongs the sainted day of our National existence; and it is the season of great public joy and festivity with every patriotic citizen. Although with us, it is the close of the field harvest, yet in the Middle, Western, and Northern States, the joyous reaper’s notes are not unfrequently mingled with the song of triumph over the foes of freedom.
In this month our grasses are fully ripe, and every farmer who would provide for his stock their winter stores, must look to the securing of his fodder, and the reaping of his hay. Of our field grasses the orchard or erab-grass is greatly superior to any other, save the musquit, which we have yet seen tried; and if the cow-pea is sowed at the last ploughing of the corn and cut with the grass, it makes hay greatly superior to any we import here from the North.
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The stock seem to give it the preference, and its fattening qualities are unrivalled. But having green grass upon our prairies the year round, there is a manifest indifference in regard to this crop, which we are sorry to observe.
August.
With the beginning of this month the planter’s attention is pro- foundly engaged in the gathering of his cotton, and all hands are now called to duty. This is the trying season to health and patience, and care and anxiety are seen to be the indwellers of the planter’s household. His feelings tincture the breathing atmosphere of life around him, and if success crowns his labors, every living soul, white and black, is sure to be the recipient of a bounty unsurpassed by any other agricultural class. From this crop alone the planter is expected to obtain his annual expenses and to lay up a store for the education and starting in life of his young family.
September.
Nothing can excel the beauty of the cotton-field during the first fall month, especially if the weather be dry and cool. We know of no scenic resemblance which will give our Northern friends any adequate conception of this interesting sight, except their cedars, all clothed with verdure in mid-winter. upon which has gently fallen the pure and unsullied snow-flake. Amid these pendent pure white drops are seen the deep green leaves, among which repose the forms with their blue and yellow rays, surmounted by the rich red blooms, with a border of cream-color, all combined in decoration of the plant, and emblematic of the seasons of the year.
October.
When we look into our cotton-fields, we cannot shut out from our eyes the fact so oft proclaimed, “that cotton is king.” England has essayed in every clime to break the galling chains of this depend- ence upon us for this staple. She has exhibited her hostility in every form, but when cotton speaks, a dread silence reigns through- out her vast domain. How flattering then to our planting interest to know that they hold in their hands the sceptre of civilization and the purse of peace. Let them not be forgetful of their high mission.
We are now in the very middle of the picking season, and in no month, with favorable weather, can the hands do more successful work. The heaviest gatherings are usually made during this month.
A second sowing of turnips may now be made. This is a most useful crop for the family, as well as the housed stock of cows and oxen. The ruta-baga is decidedly superior to any other kind. This crop is not sufficiently appreciated in the South.
November.
At early dawn (the frosty nights now opening the cotton-bolls
with great rapidity) the clear-sounding horn calls to work the dusky
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gang, to contest the prize of victory, “image of war, without its guilt.” The season now approaches, when the various rewards for skill and diligence are to be distributed among the negroes. To gaze for one moment upon the happy faces of those in the front ranks, ready to pluck the gaudiest premiums, evincing a genuine national taste, would well repay the mistaken zealot in the cause of abolition for the many anxious hours he has spent for the suffer- ings of the negro, and would stay the torrent of his unholy crusade against the South.
By the opening of this month, if the weather be dry, the vines may be cut from the sweet potato with great advantage to the root, and will make a hay quite equal to the pea-vine. They are easily cured, and are full of saccharine matter and starch. With us they grow most luxuriantly, and there is no forage in the hay line to be excelled by the well-cured sweet potato-vines. If not saved for hay, they afford a most excellent manure for thin or stiff soils. We regret to see so little attention paid to the saving of hay and prov- ender for stock in the winter. The qualities of our cows, as milkers, would be materially enhanced by winter-feeding.”
The following accounts of several counties afford positive proof that white labor is now largely used in the cultivation of cotton. Many more might be given, all tending to prove the same point :—
Chambers Oounty, furnished by Judge Wm. Chambers.
“This county, created at the last session of the legislature, adjoins Galveston county on the south. The Trinity River runs through it, and empties in the Bay within the limits of the county. Much of the land is of a fine quality, and well adapted to the growth of Sea Island cotton, Cuban tobacco, sugar cane, corn and oats; pota- toes and other vegetables flourish finely ; fruits do well. The stock range is as good as any on the coast; and in every part of the county there is a fine, navigable stream. Double Bayou, Turtle Bayou, Trinity River, Old River, and Cedar Bayou, are all navi- gable streams, through this county, at all seasons. A steam packet, carrying the United States mail, runs the Trinity daily, and sail crafts the other streams and the Bay. The county is finely tim- bered. The largest body of pine and other timber, on the coast of Texas, is in this county. The streams furnish, abundantly, the finest fish, and in the winter season thousands of wild fowl resort to the Bay. The larger portion of firewood, consumed in Galveston, is boated from this county. Its contiguity to Galveston, and its daily connection therewith, afford the best facilities of ‘getting all kinds of produce to a ready market. The well water is abundant, soft and cool. The health is good; a fine sea breeze prevails during the summer. ‘The towns are Anahuac and Wallisville, one of which
4]
will be the county seat. Population of the county about twelve hundred.
Comal County, furnished by Samuel H. Frank.
The chief products of this county are corn, wheat, cotton, rye) barley, sugar, and both Sweet and Irish potatoes. During the last year, out of 103,284 acres, the whole number in the county, there were 12,116 acres under cultivation, not including 6102 town lots. Six hundred and seventy-six and one-half acres were planted with cotton; eight thousand four hundred and seventy-one and one-half acres in corn; five hundred and two acres in wheat; seventy-five and one-half acres in sugar, and three hundred and ninety and one- half acres miscellaneous, including rye and barley. Improved lands are worth, on an average, about twenty dollars per acre; unim- proved, various, as to position, water, ete. The labor is principally done by whites; yet there are one hundred and seventy-nine slaves, without a single free colored, in the county. The disposition of the people is to own slaves as soon as able. The total white population of the county is 3,631. There are three deaf and dumb, and two insane persons. The lands of the valleys are of strong soil, as has been proved by their being under cultivation since the first settle- ment in 1846. The uplands are well adapted to grazing. There are, in this county, 14,892 head of cattle, at an average value of eight dollars and fifty cents per head; 1,094 head of horses, at thirty-three dollars per head; sheep and hogs are raised to the best advantage. The average value of beef, throughout the year, is three to four cents per pound; pork, seven to eight cents; mutton, nominal.
Colorado County, furnished by A. Dunlevy, Assessor and Collector.
The trade of this county formerly went to Lavaca, but the build- ing of the B. B. B. and C. R. R. in this direction, has turned it to Galveston and Richmond. The county is settling up rapidly, the land in the bottoms being high, rich, and easily cultivated, producing an average of a bale of cotton and thirty-five bushels corn per acre, while the prairies and uplands generally afford fine stock ranges. Water very good, and abundant for stock purposes. Experiments in sheep raising have proved very successful. Wheat flourishes finely and produces well. A steam mill, for making flour, has been put in operation.
_ There are a great number of small German farms in the county. Some of the land in the county has been in cultivation since 1822, and produces as well now as at first. Fruit, of all kinds adapted to the climate, flourish.
Comanche County, furnished by T. C. Frost and Son.
In this county, there are planted in cotton, 8 acres; in corn, 1,072: in wheat, 483; in sugar cane, 34 acres. Average yield per
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acre of corn, 40 bushels; wheat, 20 bushels. There are 94 farms in the county. White population, 818; slaves, 63. Improved lands are worth five dollars per acre; unimproved, one dollar. Lands have been cultivated three years, and produce much better—dark loam, slightly commingled with sand, is the general character of the soil. There are 12,000 head of cattle in the county; 1,000 head of horses; 400 head of sheep; 3,000 head of hogs. The average value of cattle is $6.50 per head; horses, $75; sheep, $3. Sheep and horses are the most profitable stock. Beef is worth two and a half cents per pound; pork, five cents per pound; corn, fifty cents per bushel; wheat, one dollar per bushel. Our county is remark- ably healthy. We have two flouring mills. Our inhabitants are in Savor of slavery—intensely so.
Henderson County, furnished by Felix Parks.
Tn this county are cultivated now (1857) about 10,000 acres in cotton; the same in corn, 1,000 acres in wheat. On an average twenty acres are cultivated per hand. We have about 400 farms, about 600 slaves, 400 slave laborers, and 400 white laborers. The whole number of white population is about 2,500. There are in this county two deaf and dumb persons, five lunatics, and twenty orphans. We have about 20,000 acres of improved land, the aver- age value being five dollars per acre; unimproved valued at two dollars per acre. Some of our lands have been cultivated ten years, without failing in production. We have a variety of soil, some light sandy, some that is red and dark sandy. The valley land is mulatto or chocolate color; depth of soil from eighteen inches to two feet. We have 5,541 head of cattle; 592 horses; 500 head of sheep. The average value of cattle “is six dollars; of horses, fifty dollars ; of sheep, two dollars and fifty cents per head. Trinity River bounds this county on the west, and the Neches on the east. This county is generally a high elevated country. Our markets are Galveston, THlouston, and Shreveport. Transportation by wagons, and by navi- gation when Trinity River is boatable. We have springs and wells; the water is mostly freestone, and is very wholesome and palatable. Stock water is plenty.
Jasper County, furnished by an old Citizen of the County.
Wiess’s Bluff is situated on the Neches River, in Jasper county, fifty miles below the town of Jasper, and sixteen miles above the town of Beaumont, it being at the head of tide water. I have resided here with my family for nearly nineteen years. I believe this to be a very healthy section of country—so much so, that we never have had occasion to employ a physician. This is a timbered country, and consists of a considerable variety, but in the immediate neighborhood it is mostly pine and cypress. The soil is thin, but it rests on a good clay foundation, and the most of it is susceptible of cultivation ; the farms are generally small in this immediate neigh-
Bins
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borhood, but stock-raising is the principal occupation of the in- habitants. The cotton region of this county is in the neighborhood of Jasper, where there are some very fine cotton lands, and some extensive cotton plantations. Last year’s cotton crop (1856—57) could not have been less than 1,800 or 2,000 bales. When I first settled this place, in 1839, the shipment of cotton that year con- sisted of fourteen or sixteen bales, but it has been increasing steadily until now; and as near as I can judge of the quantity that went down last fall and this spring (1858), it cannot be much short of 7,000 bales, besides hides, peltries, tobacco, and lumber. The wild animals of our vicinity consist of bears, wildeats, panthers, deer, opossums, raccoons, squirrels, turkeys, and rabbits, with a few foxes and wolves.
Jackson County, furnished by J. M. White, Assessor and Collectcr.
There are in this county (1857) 1,800 acres cultivated in cotton, average yield per acre 1,700 pounds seed cotton; 3,700 acres in corn, 35 bushels per acre. Sugar cane has been cultivated on a small scale, and by inexperienced persons; the result, however, was very favorable. The county is well adapted to the growth of cane, as much so as any of the coast counties. Fifteen acres, on an aver- age, are cultivated tothe hand. There are 110 farms, 1100 whites, 1 blind (white), 1 lunatic, and 1 deaf and dumb (both slaves). Some lands have been cultivated twenty-eight or thirty years. They per- haps do not produce quite so well as fresh lands, yet there are very fair crops made on them now. Cattle are considered the most profitable stock raised. They pay an interest of thirty-three per cent. on the amount invested. Beeves are worth from thirteen to fifteen dollars per head; pork from four to five cents per pound ; sheep, as far as tried, do well. Texana is the only town in the county ; it was commenced in 1833.
Limestone County, furnished by Andrew Winborne.
This county is bounded on the northwest by Hill and Navarro ; on the northeast by Navarro and Freestone; on the southeast by Leon and Robertson; on the southwest by McLennan and Falls. In this county about 3,652 acres are planted in cotton—average yield about 1,200 pounds per acre; in corn, about 10,107 acres are planted—average yield per annum, for a series of ten years, about 30 bushels per acre; in wheat about 1,225 acres—average yield about 12 bushels per acre; 214 acres in Chinese sugar cane, which appears to grow well without regard to seasons or soil. Of miscel- laneous productions there are in cultivation about 2,443 acres; these consist of rye, oats, millet, potatoes, ete. There are about 1,000 white and 600 negro laborers in this county, and about 400 farms. The total white population is 3,087; slaves, 959; free colored, none. There are 17,631 acres in cultivation, and 558,000 unimproved. Some of the land in this county has been in cultivation about
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thirteen years, and still produces well. There are about 15,000 acres of vacant land of inferior quality. About two-thirds of the soil is a sandy loam, which is very well adapted to the growth of cotton, corn, oats, ete. The balance is the black, sticky prairie, somewhat like that in the upper wheat counties. The depth of soil in the sandy loam is from twelve to fifteen inches, while in the black land it is several feet. There is an abundance of musquite grass on the waters of Big Creek, in the western portion of this county, and the range there is perhaps as good as it is anywhere in the State. There are about 31,501 cattle in this county, valued at about $6.50 per head; horses 2,698, average $60 per head; sheep about 4,000, worth $3.50 or $4 per head. Hogs are numerous, but an estimate cannot well be made of their number or value. Apples, peaches, pears, plums, cherries, figs, and grapes are grown in small quantities; of these, peaches and plums seem to grow best. ‘Two varieties of wild grape (Post Oak and Mustang) grow here in great abundance. Several experiments in making wine from the Mustang grape have been made, with entire satisfaction. ‘The wine is pro- nounced by competent judges to be superior to the imported. Preparation is now being made for repeating the experiment on a larger scale.
Llano County, furnished by W. C. Billingsley.
The lands of this county have none of them been in cultivation more than about three years, and they produce now rather better than at first. The soil is generally a sandy loam, from six inches to two feet in depth. Stock cattle are worth six dollars, and beeves fourteen dollars. Our unbroke horses are worth thirty dollars, and when gentle, seventy-five dollars per head. Sheep are worth three dollars, and hogs one dollar and fifty cents per head. The annual increase, in cattle, is near seventy-five per cent. Cattle, hogs, and sheep are our most profitable animals. There are instances, among us, of sheep averaging two lambs to the ewe, throughout the flock, and sows ten pigs, each, throughout the herd. Beef is usually worth two and one-half cents per pound, and pork five cents. The average yield of wool, per head, is three and one half pounds for common sheep, and three pounds, per head, of the finer qualities, the coarser being worth twenty-five cents, and the finer thirty cents, per pound. Sheep, among us, do remarkably well, and are almost entirely free from diseases. The expense is the merest trifle; all required is a good herdsman, at ten dollars per month, for wages, and five dollars for board, and some wolf-proof lots. Peaches and plums are all the fruits we have tried, as yet, and these do well.
San Augustine County, furnished by John Nicholson, Assessor and Collector.
In this county there are 6,196 acres in cotton; 8,814 in corn;
1,022 in wheat; 15 in sugar cane. The yield, per acre, in cotton,
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is about 1,000 pounds; in corn, from. 20 to 40 bushels; in wheat, about 15 bushels. A hand cultivates an average of fifteen acres. There are about 800 slave laborers; whole white population, 2,368; whole number of slaves, 1,641; free colored persons, none; no deaf and dumb; 2 blind, 3 lunatics, and no orphans or others chargeable on the county. Number of acres improved land, 18,958, at an average value of $4; unimproved, $2; very little vacant land. Some of the land has been cultivated thirty-six years, and still produces well. Average value of cattle, $6; of horses, $75; of sheep, $2.50; of hogs, $2 to $6. Beef is worth three and a half, pork four, and mutton five cents per pound; corn seventy-five cents, wheat one dollar, and potatoes fifty cents per bushel. Sheep are raised at very little trouble or expense, and are free from disease. San Augustine is our only town; its population, 461. This town has a good courthouse, with several churches, and some of the best high schools in the State. Our market is New Orleans, by wagon transportation to Grand Ecore, seventy-five miles, at a charge of one dollar per hundred weight, and thence, by water, to New Orleans, at fifty cents per barrel.
The following extracts are from the Texas Almanac of 1861:—
Robertson County.
Between these two streams (the Brazos and Navasota) is a body of bottom land, averaging about four miles in width, almost every foot of which is susceptible of cultivation, and none of it surpassed by the richest soil in the State, and I doubt if the world affords any more desirable or fertile. Nor is it liable to frequent overflow, as are many portions of this river.
This land has not thus far attracted the attention of planters, and I am sure that in a short time it will command high prices. Even now there are no objections urged against it but those which, a short time ago, were common to almost all the low lands in the State, namely, overflow and sickness, and with equally as much propriety as I think; both are being practically refuted every day.
Burleson County, by J. W. Thomas, Chief Justice.
A few miles below this place, in Burleson county, opens one of the highest and finest bottoms on the Brazos River, about thirty miles in length by five in width, which is now being settled by wealthy cotton planters, and much of it in cultivation, yielding an average of about 2,500 pounds of seed cotton to the acre.
Upshur County. The labor of this county 7s about equally divided between slaves and white persons. Slaves hire at from $175 to $250 per year. The number of acres cultivated per hand will average about 15.
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Clay County.
The land in this county is mostly undulating, rolling sufficiently for drainage. The bottoms are more level than the higher lands, but do not hold water, such plateau generally having a natural drain. There is actually no poor land, or any unfit for cultivation, that I have been able to find. The expense of breaking prairie is very little. There are no doubt thousands of acres in the county of most superior land that can be bought for a dollar an acre.
Our county is just settling up, the emigration being mostly from Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas. White labor makes the track; but it is only because we are too poor to buy the darkies—we want them bad enough.
We have the best of stock range the year round—the grass during all the winter, in the bottoms, being perfectly green, tender, and nutritious. Fruit very plenty, especially grapes and plums.
Comal County, by the Assessor.
Mostly settled by Germans. In this county there are in culti- vation 800 acres in cotton, 15,000 acres in corn, 600 acres in wheat. The acre yields 500 pounds of clean cotton, 40 bushels of corn, 20 bushels of wheat. From 3,500 to 4,000 white inhabitants; 188 slaves; 396 farms. Improved lands $50; unimproved $3 an acre. Most of the farms are cultivated by white labor ; a white hand culti- vates thirty acres of corn. Peaches yield abundantly; apples and quinces have been tried successfully. The wild grape, plum, cherry, mulberry, and blackberry grow luxuriantly. Wine of good quality has been made here.
New Braunfels is the county seat. It has 2,000 inhabitants, and boasts of having the only free school in the State, supported by aid from the State school fund and by direct taxation on the property of the school district. our teachers are employed, and there are 250 pupils.
Rio Grande Valley.
The climate of the whole valley is one of the finest in the world, as far as regards salubrity. It is mild in winter, and in the other seasons enjoys the fairest reputation of any of the tropical countries.
The country is subject to periods of severe drought, as in 1858, 1859. But eyen then the injury is partly compensated by the in- creased growth of mesquite beans for the cattle and hogs, and by the very heavy dews. Our bottom lands will yield a crop, if prop- erly cultivated, without a drop of rain.
The? agricultural resources of this region have been very little developed, owing to the fact that we cannot hold slaves here to till the soil, as they escape to Mexico whenever brought here.
Along the river the land, for the production of cotton, sugar, corn, tobacco, and other staples, is as fine as other portions of the State.
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The same sea breeze and salt air which gives to Sea Island cot- ton its value, brings health and vigor to the cultivator.
“[The following article has been received from a friend who has had opportunities to know something by experience of the culture of Sea Island cotton, and we believe his suggestions will be found valuable to those embarking in this branch of agriculture, which now promises to be one among the most profitable in our State. ]
Editors Texas Almanac,—Seeing lately a Sea Island gin made with rollers eighteen inches long and four in diameter, convinced me that the mite of information the writer can give on the subject will be of use to some of the vanguard in this new enterprise, the culture of a crop yet to rank high in value among the exportable staples of Texas; a crop, the best culture and preparation of which, for market, invites therefore public notice and discussion. And, more especially, as according to my observation of several trials within seventeen years past, seed from Carolina, there naturally producing cotton of the value of 45 cents, 150 pounds per acre, here makes a lint worth 50 to 65 cents, 300 to 400 pounds per acre. The finest qualities are those made by salt manures, forty loads salt- marsh mud per acre, ete.; here, doubtless, merely replanting our own seed a few times will improve the quality to the finest grade, this coast, from its salt dews and sea breeze during the season of growth, being peculiarly adapted to this cotton. Unlike sugar, this crop requires little expense in buildings or machinery, yet yields from $150 to $180 per acre. It is not for beginners to try experi- ments in ginning with power gins; it is true five-sixths of the labor of ginning is saved, but the lint deteriorates four to eight per cent., which is no economy. The old roller gin, worked by foot, is re- fable for turning out the lint in the dest possible order and condition, if we except hand-picking. Although it gins but fifty pounds clean cotton per day, with one hand, when the value of the lint, $25 to $30, is considered, it does not appear slow, and the cost of the gin is small.
For Sea Island cotton a locality on our islands or bay shores is requisite ; its cultivation the same as that of upland cotton. Owing to the smaller size of its bolls, picking is slower. The culture is easy, the plant bearing drought much better than corn; but the preparation for market is a trade to be learned, therefore it would be well to procure from South Carolina an overseer, or an intelligent negro, accustomed to the crop.
From another letter—
I should not omit to mention that the Sea Island cotton has been planted by several persons in Gonzales county for several years past, and that the cotton produced has sold for from thirty to forty cents per pound, and proved profitable to the planters. On the
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Colorado River I also hear of some in cultivation, last year and this, with like results. I am not able to give you the names of the planters in Gonzales or on the Colorado.
The plant attains to a height, on our coast islands, of from four to six feet, and branches well. The limbs are long, slender, short- jointed, and full of small, long, sharp bolls, of a glittering green color. On the main land, the plant generally larger and more robust, but bearing equally as well as upon the islands. The yield, per acre, will be from two hundred and fifty to three hundred and fifty pounds of ginned cotton, varying with soil and seasons, of the average yearly value of one hundred and fifty dollars per acre. I have no very reliable data upon which to estimate the quantity of land upon the coast islands and adjacent shores, particularly adapted to Sea Island cotton. From such as I have, it may be set down at one hundred and sixty thousand acres, extending from Galveston Bay to the Rio Grande.
Sea Island cotton in Rifugio County, by J. W. Byrne.
I think it a fair estimate, that a hand can cultivate five acres of Sea-Island cotton with ease, and with assistance of small hands, in picking and other light work, the task would be a light one. This will show that, after allowing a fair rate of wages for hands, rent for land, and other expenses, the business, even on the old slow plan, would yield a handsome profit on capital invested and expense of cultivation; and if such is the case, how greatly must the profits be augmented by the use of improved gins, that will turn out, as I am informed, 300 pounds per day. Let us enter into a short caleu- lation of what could be done on the old plan, and at the old prices, namely: five acres, producing five bags of 300 Ibs. each, or 1500 Ibs. clean cotton to the hand, at 40 cents per pound, would be $600 —showing a clear profit of, at least, $300—to the hand.
It is a matter of surprise to many, that the coast country of Texas—especially the south-western portion of it, the lands of which are so fine, rich, and productive, even to the water’s edge of our beautiful bays, with a climate not surpassed by that of Italy, and celebrated for its healthfulness—should have been so much over- looked and neglected by agriculturists and capitalists, men able to develop its resources to their own advantage and the general good.”
The chief objection to the use of colored laborers in the ecultiva- tion of cotton, is in their liability to rheumatic complaints and fevers, caused by the cold and dampness of the mornings in the spring and autumn, when most of the work is performed.
4g
“Temperature and rain for 1858, at Texas Military Institute, lat. 29° 58’ 2”, lon. 96° 46’.
REGISTER OF PROF. FORSHEY.
1858. Sunrise. | 2 P. M.| 9 P. M.| Mean. Rain, in. January, . .| 49.3 | 624 | 53.0 | 5490 | 6— February, . .| 405.6 o7.— 90.2 | 51.04 S| March ii. |) 30-4 67.2 59.8 | 60.78 4,25 J:\\ 01 OP nicl ene! CEL! 63.6 | 67.14 0. 0 iy PMR GP 68.2 75.4 69.3 | 71.62 5.70 SWUNG eae 69.3 83.9 75.— | 76.01 6.39 Stlyn cea 72.4 92.6 78.4 81.13 — August,. . .| 70.5 93.3 80.— 81.29 0.5 September, . 62.8 88.4 69.-— | 74.53 0. 5 October, . . 62.6 81.9 62.6 71.36 Seid November,. . 43.3 63.38 } 49.4 | 52.01 2. 2 December,. . 48.1 58.4 o1.4 | 52.06 4.4 Mean.) sects. 59.— 75.12 64.10 66.15 37.74
Mean temperature 1856, 1857, 1858, ‘ > 65°. 31 Rain Us: - “ : 5 32.56 ins.”
But sufficient evidence has been given.
The writer long since came to the conclusion that an article like cotton, the best in the world for the purposes to which it is applied, must, of necessity, be more cheaply produced by a system of cultivation based on sound principles of political economy, than by one based upon utterly unsound principles. That to believe otherwise would be to doubt the justice of God.
He entered upon the investigation of the details to confirm his conclusion, with no idea of publishing the result, but he has found the evidence so overwhelming that he believes it will be of use at the present time.
Many will differ from him in the opinion that the neces- sary, logical and desirable conclusion of the war is to be emancipation, but few will doubt that slavery is doomed in the border states.
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I slavery is only doomed in the border states, then is the claim that Texas shall be freed by compensation,—by martial law, or by breaking through the cob-webs of unjust human law,—far stronger than before.
If this is not done there will be an emigration to Texas of slaveholders with their chattels, entirely unprecedented. The opportunity for the cultivation of cotton and sugar by free labor, untrammelled by the neighborhood of slaves, upon the best lands, will be lost for a century. After that our only opportunity will be upon the worn out and deserted plantations of the old cotton states.
Let it be observed that the unoccupied lands of Texas differ from all others in the United States, in the fact, that after we had secured them by war, and paid for them by indemnity, we magnanimously gave them to the State, and there are now 101,088,100 acres of unincumbered public lands belonging to Texas, subject to confiscation and to be applied as bounty lands to the soldiers who may occupy them.*
By the cowardice of the present generation of northern men, Texas has been made a slave state after her territory had been dedicated to freedom by a nation which we presume to call half-civilized. Have we the courage to redeem her from the curse ?
We have “disguised our national sin too long, for the sake of national peace.”
We have no right to wonder at the dishonor and dishon- esty of southern men when we think of our own humiliating series of compromises and concessions.
If we neglect the present opportunity “ to extend the area of freedom,” and to complete the independence our fathers
* The question may well be asked, as it is beginning to be,—whether the confiscation of the lands of all rebels,—individuals and states,—and the be- stowal of them as a bounty to our soldiers, is not a necessary step in that reconstruction of southern society which must be accomplished, to render the reconstruction of the Union solid and enduring.
Sul
partially accomplished, and believed they had fully secured for their posterity,—then shall we have no claim upon the sym- pathy of foreign nations,—then will our boasted freedom be a sham and a delusion,—our declaration of independence a mockery and a lie, and our Union a disgrace and a dis- honor.
In order to correct any errors, I have submitted proof sheets of this pamphlet to several gentlemen who have lived many years at the south.
One returns the proof, with the remark, ‘ Your estimated product of eight bales per hand is rather large, but you are perfectly right in making it the basis of your argument, for the maximum product of slave labor would be the minimum of free labor.”
Another says, ‘“‘I have known many instances like that stated upon page 28, of the farmer who with his two son& made 22 bales cotton besides grain enough for his family. Cases are numerous in Tennessee and Alabama, where farmers with only small children to help pick, make ten bales cotton, besides other products sufficient to support their families and to exchange for their ‘ store clothes’ as they call them.”
Another says, ‘The negroes suffer from cold during the picking season, when the hardest work is done. I have fre- quently seen them build fires in the corners of the cotton patches, to warm their fingers at.”
Another gentleman who has lived many years in various parts of the south says, “I can endorse every word you say as to the feasibility of white labor upon cotton, and more ;— the south has a more healthy climate than the north, for the white laborer,—I would place a white man against a negro, in the cultivation of any product of the south, except rice, and that is not of sufficient consequence to be considered,— the white man would do twice the work and the negro would be killed off if he tried to keep up with him.”
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Another,—long a resident of Texas but now of New York, —writes me as follows: ‘I have examined your proof sheets carefully and can see little to add—I could give you excep- tional cases to prove what intelligent farmers might make the general rule,—for instance, I knew a large planter in Brazoria County who made in 1858, 13 bales to the hand, and in 1859, 15 bales, and yet had to plough up a large amount of fully matured cotton for want of sufficient hands to pick it.”
“{ think there is no subject on which there is so great a delusion in the north, as the cultivation of cotton. I am very glad you have opened the subject and I hope it will be followed up, until northern men can be made to realize that they are defrauded of their share in a most profitable and easy branch of agriculture, by the monopoly of the cotton lands by the slayeholders.”’
_ “By pointing out that the profit of raising cotton was forcing free labor into it, you have struck the very key note of the rebellion.”
Another writes:—“You have omitted to note that the hardest labor required of any class in the south, that of stevedores and laborers in loading and discharging vessels in New Orleans and Mobile, is now done by whites, labor requir- ing the greatest exposure to heat in the most unhealthy places in the whole south except the rice swamps. The labor in the cotton sheds and presses of Galveston is done exclu- sively by Germans, in fact it may be said that free labor has driven the slaves from almost all out-door occupations which cannot be carried on by gangs under the superintendence of an overseer.”
The question is often asked, ‘‘ What will become of the ne- groes when emancipated?” Maryland and Delaware do not seem to have found any difficulty in this matter, it being well understood that they could not spare their free colored population without very serious injury.
Delaware, Maryland,
8. Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas,
Isl. of Barbadoes,
&q. miles. 2,120 11,124
13,244 Sq. miles. 29,385 58,000 59,268 50,722 47,156 41,255 237,504 52,198
575,488
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Free negroes in 1860. Avge. to sq. mile. 19,728 9.30 83,718 7.52
103,441 Avge. 7.81
Slaves in 1860. Ayge. to sq. mile. 402,541 13.70 462,230 7.97
61,753 1.04 435,132 8.57 436,696 9.26 332,520 8.06 180,388 76 111,104 2.13
2,422,364 Avge. 4.21 Free negroes.
124,000 TAT.
Average value of land in Barbadoes, $500 per acre.
Av. product of sugar per hand in do.
Slave, 1043 lbs. Free, 3660 lbs.
Average cost of sugar perhhd. . . Slave, $50.
Virginia,
N. Carolina,
Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri,
Delaware, Maryland,
Sq. miles. 61,352 50,704 37,680 45,600 67,380
262,716
Sq miles.
2,120 11,124
Free, $20. Slayes in 1860. Avge. to sq. mile- 490,887 8. 331,081 6.58 225,490 5.99 275,784 6.05 114,965 1.70 1,438,207 5.48 Slaves in 1860. Ayge. to sq. mile. 1,798 0.85 87,188 7.84
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General statement of the colored population of the Slave States.
Sq. miles, 1860. Delaware, 2,120 Slaves, 1,798 Free negroes, 19,723 Maryland, 11,124 Slaves, 87,188 Free negroes, 83,718 Dist. of Columbia, 60 Slaves, 3,181 Free negroes, 11,107
13,304 206,715 Ave. 15.54 Sq. miles. 1860.
All other Slave
States, 838,204 Slaves, 3,860,571
Free negroes, 144,530
838,204 4,005,101 Avg. 4.77
Individual opinions are of little consequence, but the writer would not have it inferred,—as some of his anti-slavery friends have inferred,—that even with the possession of Texas as a free State, he would advise any abatement of the agita- tion of the question of slavery, until absolute and complete emancipation throughout the whole country shall have been secured. His argument in the previous pages has been to prove that the system of slavery is based on false economic principles and could not stand the competition of free labor, but viewing slavery as a moral question, opposition and agi- tation cannot be abated for a moment until it shall be utterly destroyed.
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